


Manipulation

by achievemenhunter



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Blood, Disney ending, M/M, Near-Death Experience, Ragehappy Secret Santa 2017, mild violence, superhero au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-25
Updated: 2017-12-25
Packaged: 2019-02-10 00:20:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12899964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/achievemenhunter/pseuds/achievemenhunter
Summary: Gavin has always been conservative in the use of his powers, always terrified that any large display of his abilities would just end up hurting the people around him. In any case, he was never interested in the level of publicity that came with being openly metahuman.A series of events lands Gavin exactly where he doesn't want to be - as the newest member of the Achievement Hunters, a collective of metahumans tasked with keeping any rogue metahumans from causing chaos in the streets. Of course, it helps that the mentor he's been assigned is hot as all hell, but in and of itself this brings on a whole new set of problems...





	Manipulation

**Author's Note:**

> So, this fic is the reason I haven't posted much as of late - it's my entry for this year's Ragehappy Secret Santa! I had a lot of fun writing this one (even though not writing in any swearing was a bit of challenge for me), and I hope that the recipient and everyone else enjoys it!
> 
> Content warnings for mild violence/blood, and major character near-death but I promise they're okay at the end.

Gavin's breath tore sharply at his lungs, making him gasp and stutter as he ran.

 

Not even in the country for a week and he'd already landed himself in trouble.

 

"Jesus, kid, just slow down already!" One of the men chasing after him yelled, voice cracking, and Gavin would have scoffed if he could spare the breath.

 

Yeah, right. Like he was doing that.

 

Gavin rounded a corner, letting out a squawk of alarm as the ladder of a fire escape bent towards him with a groan, trying to wrap around his middle. He ducked underneath twisting metal, fingers scraping against brick as he tried to maintain his forward momentum.

 

It just figured that one of the first metahumans he came across in the States was a damn telekinetic.

 

He hadn't meant to attract attention; hell, the whole reason he'd left the UK was because he'd done a poor job of keeping his own powers under the radar. To be fair, thought, time manipulation wasn't exactly the subtlest of abilities.

 

And it wasn't like he'd done anything _bad_ with them - he mostly used it for mundane things, like slowing down a bus he was running late for, or to help catch something he'd accidentally knocked over, or speeding up the clock when he'd still been in school so that the class would finish early. Little things. That was about the extent to which he could use his abilities, anyway - he had no formal training with his powers, didn't actively practice to improve them. A part of him was scared of what he might be capable of. In any case, he didn't want to be thrust into the limelight; whilst powers obviously weren't unheard of, they certainly weren't common, and there was a whole lot of publicity involved in a new metahuman being discovered. Gavin just wanted to be able to pretend he was normal.

 

So when he saw that out-of-control bus full of commuters careening towards a busy intersection, he of course had to be the big damn hero and slow it down before anyone could get hurt.

 

He'd be impressed, later, that he was even able to pull off such a huge display of his power, compared to what he normally used it for. Now, however, he was cursing his stupid bravery, because it had left him drained and rather ill-equipped to be facing off against two other metahumans.

 

When he'd stopped the bus, there had been so much chaos and confusion that very few people had noticed the slim figure of Gavin, hands out and eyes narrowed as he focused on keeping the bus from crossing into oncoming traffic. People screamed, cars slowing in confusion as the bus glided serenely towards the intersection.

 

The two men now chasing after him now had seen him, though, perhaps sensing someone using their powers nearby. Gavin had heard that some people could do that. Just his luck.

 

Once he'd been sure that there was enough of a gap in the intersection that the bus could safely come to a stop, he let it go, gasping at the release of energy and taking off running. The men had been quick to follow, but neither of them displayed powers of their own until they'd chased Gavin into an empty side street, away from any prying eyes.

 

That was when the scenery had started to try and trap him.

 

Gavin cursed as a drainpipe detached itself from the wall and swung towards his legs. He jumped and tumbled over it, skinning his palms, then regaining his feet more through luck than anything else. God, he wished he knew these streets well enough to get back somewhere with other people around. As it was, every turn he took only seemed to get him more lost in the maze of back alleys.

 

"Seriously, we're not trying to hurt you!" the second man called out. Gavin let out a breathless laugh at that, unable to stop himself. "Could you just slow down already?"

 

Gavin reached an intersection that he was halfway sure he'd been at once already. From what he could remember, he'd taken a right the first time, so now he swung left, only to come to a despairing halt as he was confronted with a dead end, strewn with bits of garbage and leaf litter swept up against a dumpster by the intermittent wind that blew down the alleys.

 

He whirled back around, thumping heart sinking as he saw the two men round the corner behind him. He threw out his hands and did his best to focus, but his grip on his powers was tenuous at best after the strain he'd put himself through with the bus, and they only slowed slightly. Despite the placating expressions on their faces, Gavin was still scared, and he backed up slowly, even though he knew there wasn't really anywhere for him to go.

 

"We're not going to hurt you," the taller of the two told him soothingly. Gavin regarded him with distrust. He didn't _look_ like a bad person - with the depth of the bags under his sleepy blue eyes, he looked like he needed a nap more than anything. But looks could always be deceiving.

 

"Why don't I believe you?" Gavin retorted peevishly, finally managing to wrest some control over his power and bringing the sleepy-looking man to a near-standstill. A frustrated expression began to gradually inch its way across the slowed man's face.

 

It became immediately clear that the second man was the telekinetic, because the front of the dumpster behind Gavin suddenly tore free, rubbish spilling onto the ground as the metal wrapped around the Brit's form, encasing him in metal from the neck down. With a shriek, Gavin lost focus.

 

The taller man rounded furiously on his companion. "What the hell, Ryan? You really think turning him into a burrito is going to make him trust us?"

 

Ryan held his hands up. "Hey, I was only trying to help you. You might not have noticed, but he got you pretty good with that temporal blast."

 

"Shut up."

 

"Oh, and thanks for just tossing my name out there like that, by the way."

 

The older man's eyes started to glow slightly with warning, but Ryan just raised an eyebrow at him.

 

"Cute, Geoff."

 

"Hypocrite," Geoff muttered.

 

"...Who the bloody hell are you people?" Gavin asked, now more confused than scared.

 

Geoff sighed. "We're part of a team called the Achievement Hunters," he said, sounding unenthused. "We're a collection of metahumans that use our abilities to protect Achievement City."

 

"Geoff, please, sound less excited." Ryan regarded him with a bemused expression. "You only created the Achievement Hunters and built up our reputation to the point where people see us as respected authority figures." He let out a small snort. "Not that I can entirely understand why they do, but the point remains."

 

Now that he wasn't actively fearing for his safety, Gavin took a good look at the two men.

 

Geoff looked like a stereotypical cool uncle, albeit with a lot more tattoos. Ink covered the back of his hands, spiralling up his arms and disappearing into his shirtsleeves. His hair, brown but receding, was thin and soft-looking, like the down on a baby duck. And Ryan, well…

 

Gavin had to admit, Ryan was hot. His dark blond hair was swept out of his face, strong nose creating a natural guide down to soft, pink lips. His shoulders were broad, tapering down to a trim waist and hips. His…

 

Gavin shook his head, trying to drag his mind out of the gutter. He knew what Geoff was surely getting at, and he couldn't let the fact that he found Ryan attractive sway his decision.

 

"Oh! Sorry," Ryan said belatedly, looking sheepish as he finally released Gavin from his metal cocoon. He fused the front of the dumpster back on, telekinetically lifting all the scattered rubbish back inside. Gavin shuddered a little at the thought of all the bacteria that were surely crawling all over him now. The Brit dusted himself off.

 

"What can you do, then?" he asked Geoff.

 

"I'm photokinetic." Geoff looked a little smug. "I can shoot lasers from my eyes."

 

"Oh. Yeah, I figured it'd be something like that, what with how your eyes were glowing earlier 'n' all."

 

Geoff deflated a little at Gavin's nonchalance.

 

"So, what, you two want me to join your little superhero club, is that it?" Gavin folded his arms. "Sorry, not interested." He made to leave, but the two older men didn't move to give him space. He stared at them challengingly. "Am I allowed to go?"

 

After a few seconds, Ryan stepped aside, gesturing out of the alley with a wide, sweeping motion. Gavin tried not to bite his lip at the way it made the older man's chest flex.

 

"Of course. Just tell me one thing, though."

 

Gavin remained defensive. "What?"

 

"Why did you save that bus?"

 

"What do you mean?"

 

Ryan's mouth quirked upwards. "You say you're not interested in being a hero. So why save all those people?'

 

The younger man shuffled his feet, uncomfortable. "Well, I couldn't let them get hurt, could I? Not when I could save 'em."

 

"…But you don't want to be a hero."

 

Gavin was silent.

 

"What do you plan on doing with your life? Working as a registered superhero isn't just charity work, you know. Sure, everything's regulated - the superhero registry is a government body, of course it's regulated - but you get all your personal needs catered for, plus a modest salary. You get to save lives for a living. It's not a bad deal, when you think about it."

 

Gavin stumbled at the sudden change of tack. "I don't..." He trailed off, thinking of the dingy hotel room he was currently calling home. Sure, he had some money saved up, but that wouldn't last forever. And did he really want to dredge out his days in some menial, normal job when he could be out actively helping people?

 

"You have an incredible gift," Ryan continued softly. "Don't you think it's a waste to squander it?"

 

Gavin rubbed at his arm. "I'm not the best at controlling it," he muttered.

 

"That's what the Achievement Hunters are for," Geoff told him. "It's not like we just toss you out there and say, 'go get 'em', we train all our operatives before sending them out. Can you imagine all the paperwork we'd have to deal with if we didn't?" He slapped Ryan on the shoulder with a grin. "And we've got the perfect trainer for you right here."

 

It was Ryan's turn to look uncertain.

 

"What? Geoff, I've never trained anyone before."

 

"Hey, you're the one who went all grand-true-calling-speech on him." Geoff gave him an amused smile. "He looks up to you now. You're so inspiring. Besides, it's about time you took on a protégé."

 

Ryan looked despairingly over at Gavin. "Please tell him you don't want me as your mentor."

 

"Well…" Gavin couldn't bring himself to say it. Even with his attraction to Ryan aside, Geoff was right - Gavin already found him inspiring.

 

Geoff cackled in triumph. "Congratulations, Ryan!" he crowed. "Looks like you've got yourself a sidekick!"

 

~* * *~

 

Gavin found himself being swept off to the Achievement Hunter headquarters, an unassuming office building in downtown Achievement City. Ryan and Geoff gave him a rundown of how the operation worked, explaining various protocols and procedures that he'd be required to follow.

 

"Wouldn't have thought being a superhero would be so bureaucratic," Gavin said, wrinkling his nose slightly.

 

"By nature, it has to be," Ryan told him. "We're civil servants, just like the police. We're not above the law, we're a part of it."

 

"Yeah, except the cops don't go jumping around in spandex," Gavin muttered, and Geoff laughed.

 

"Neither do we. Spandex doesn't offer a whole lot of protection. Everyone here gets issued with a specially tailored suit. Kevlar lining, the whole works."

 

Gavin raised an eyebrow. "Fancy."

 

Geoff shrugged. "It's not like there's hundreds of us. Less than a dozen, actually. You'll meet everyone later. There's not really enough of us to justify mass-producing anything." He winked. "Besides, just because the suits hide our identities, doesn't mean we can't look cool."

 

An amused smile tugged at Gavin's lips as they walked down another nondescript corridor. "Wait, you really do go about with secret identities and superhero names and everything?"

 

"Of course. Not all metahumans find themselves on the right side of the law, that's kind of why the Achievement Hunters exist in the first place. We're the best equipped to deal with a rogue metahuman, because we can combat their powers with our own. No sense in making it easy for them to figure out who we really are."

 

Gavin digested this information with some glee. "So, what're your superhero names, then?"

 

"Geoff, ever the master of originality, chose the name Lazer."

 

"With a 'z'," the older man stressed. Ryan rolled his eyes.

 

"Of course. Super important. I decided on Exploit."

 

"Why Exploit?"

 

Ryan smiled ruefully. "Man, it sounded so much cooler at the time. You've gotta remember I was even younger than you when I started out in the superhero game. I figured that Exploit was a good name for someone who does what I do, manipulating physical objects to my needs. Geoff was just lazy with his." Geoff flipped him off and Ryan grinned, opening a door into what appeared to be a common area, several people sitting around and chatting. "These days, people get their names assigned to them; helps keep the ego down. Take Michael, for example."  Ryan nodded over at a wiry, curly-haired man that seemed to be about Gavin's age, playfully lifting a bench with three people sitting on it over his head. "Technically, he did come up with his superhero name himself, but that was on his first night as an inductee to the Achievement Hunters. He got completely wasted, stuck an empty box of beers on his head and declared that he was 'Lord Mogar, King of Booze'. Making Mogar his superhero name is our way of making sure he won't live it down."

 

Michael's head twitched in their direction, probably hearing his name being mentioned. He set the bench back down on the floor, the three people atop it jostling slightly as it hit the ground, then walked over. He jerked his chin in Gavin's direction. "Who's he?"

 

"New recruit. Temporal manipulation." Ryan nudged Gavin forward.

 

Flustered, Gavin stuck out his hand. "Um, hi, I'm Vav- wait, no, bollocks, I'm Gavin, dammit-"

 

Geoff cackled with laughter. "Oh man, I think we just found your superhero name! Vav! That's the funniest thing I've ever heard in my life!"

 

Gavin looked at him aghast. "What? No, Geoff, you can't," he protested. Ryan chuckled.

 

"He's the boss, I think you'll find he can." He clapped Gavin on the shoulder cheerfully. "Welcome to the team, Vav."

 

~* * *~

 

Over the next few weeks, Gavin found himself settling in with the Achievement Hunters. He took a quick trip to the hotel he'd been staying at previously to collect his meagre belongings, but other than that mostly stayed in the main Achievement Hunter complex, becoming acquainted with his new team members and responsibilities.

 

Despite his initial standoffish manner, Gavin became fast friends with Michael, finding his abrasive sense of humour hilarious. From there, he easily slipped into place among Michael's circle of friends. Lindsay, or Kitty Scarlet, an effervescently cheerful teleporter who was clearly the apple of Michael's eye. Jeremy, also known as Rimmy Tim, a short, stocky man with a superhero suit in horrifically clashing royal purple and burnt orange, who was an autokinetic - someone with the ability to manipulate motor vehicles - with a particular penchant for monster trucks. Jack, a little older than the rest, slightly pessimistic and set in his ways, had the rather unexpected ability to be able to heal other metahumans - something to do with them having a different genetic makeup than the rest of the human population, as he explained it. He never went out on missions himself, abhorring violence, more focussed on speeding the healing process when injured Achievement Hunters returned from the field. Caiti, a pretty, soft-spoken Australian woman and Jack's girlfriend, was arborkinetic, able to manipulate plants to her will. She cultivated a beautiful garden on the roof of the headquarters, full of aromatic flowers and sweet fruit-bearing plants. In the event of an attack on the headquarters, it also had the added benefit as being a source of plant material for her to fuel her powers, as an additional defence to the state-of-the-art technological security measures in place throughout the building.

 

Although he'd initially been reticent to even join the Achievement Hunters in the first place, Gavin found himself eager to get started in his new line of work. Which was why it was disappointing to find out that it would be months and months of gruelling training before he'd be let out on his first field mission.

 

"You need to get a better grasp on your powers first," Ryan explained. "What Geoff and I saw you do with the bus was impressive, but even you admitted that you've never done something like that before. We can't have you going up against other metahumans and suddenly realising that you can't pull off something like that when there are lives at stake. And even when you do get better mastery over your powers, you're still occasionally going to have to get physical with other metahumans, as well."

 

"I did jujutsu all through school," Gavin protested, baulking at the idea of how long he'd have to train before he'd be able to do anything useful.

 

"That definitely helps, but I'm imagining that you haven't kept it up since you left school?"

 

"…No," he replied sullenly, feeling childish.

 

"Well, still, it's much better than having no training whatsoever. A close-combat style like jujutsu is good, too - gun use isn't as common when metahumans fight each other. Take the two of us, for example - you can slow down a bullet enough to be able to sidestep it, while I can just pull the gun out of their hands to stop them from firing in the first place. Ideally, you'll be able to use your powers to keep them at bay, but it always pays to prepare for the worst."

 

"'Spose that makes sense," Gavin muttered begrudgingly, and Ryan laughed.

 

"Well, might as well get started then," Ryan announced, grabbing Gavin by the shoulders and steering him down the hall. Gavin tried not to focus too much on the warm strength of Ryan's hands.

 

"Where're we going?"

 

"Training room," Ryan told him merrily. "Our powers function quite similarly, in that we can both manipulate forces external to us, so honestly I probably am one of the better-equipped metahumans to take care of your training. Plus, if you're going to be joining me in the field at some point, it'll be good for us to have some experience working together already. But I think I'm getting ahead of myself a little there. Ah! Here we are."

 

Ryan had stopped them in front of a thick steel door, a small LED next to it like at a therapist's office. The light was off, indicating that the room was not currently in use. Ryan gave it a small tap as they entered. "Always remember to switch this on whenever you head inside," he cautioned. "The last thing we want is someone getting hurt because they came in without realising you were already in here, throwing your powers around all over the place."

 

Gavin was only half-listening, too busy gaping at the size of the room. It appeared to take up several floors-worth of space, the ceiling towering high above them. He moved further inside, curiously inspecting the random assortment of equipment lining one of the walls, opposite a massive marked-out arena space. He leant over what appeared to be a barrel of sand and poked at its contents, only to jerk back as it began to surge up and cover his hand. Ryan laughed behind him, arm still outstretched as he made the sand form into a crude hand that waved at Gavin. Gavin scowled.

 

"Hilarious, Ryan."

 

Ryan grinned. "Impressive is more like it. I'm manipulating thousands upon thousands of grains of sand simultaneously to do this, you know. It's harder than it looks." He let the sand drop, instead levitating a couple of what looked like skeet-shooting clay pigeons off one of the shelves. He nodded in the direction of the arena. "Why don't you get in position, and we'll get started?"

 

The Brit walked hesitantly over to the centre of the arena. "What, are you just going to toss those things at me?" he asked dubiously.

 

"Exactly," Ryan replied, and sent the first disc flying directly at him.

 

It hit Gavin in the stomach, bouncing off and shattering on the floor. "Ow!" he cried out indignantly, and Ryan merely shrugged.

 

"You stopped a bus before. C'mon, this should be child's play." Ryan threw another disc at him.

 

Expecting it this time, Gavin ducked out of the way with a squawk. The clay pigeon exploded into dust on the far wall. Ryan shook his head.

 

"I'm not testing your agility, Gavin, I'm testing your powers. Use them!"

 

Another disc went sailing at Gavin. The Brit protested even as he flung out one hand, making the clay pigeon come to a near standstill a few metres from him. He stepped out of its path and let it return to normal speed, causing another harmless cloud of dust against the back wall.

 

Ryan smiled. "Good," he said, then levitated another two clay pigeons, hurling them in Gavin's direction. With another squawk, Gavin slowed them again. Not as much as the first time, but still enough that he could easily allow them to drift serenely past him. He let them go, another two plumes of dust joining the rest. A small pile of shattered clay was starting to accumulate at the base of the wall.

 

Ryan began to increase the pace at which he threw the clay pigeons at Gavin, as well as the volume, over half a dozen of them in the air at any given time. Whenever it looked like Gavin was starting to get overwhelmed, he'd pull back, not wanting the younger man to actually get injured. He didn't even have to pull back all that often, though, Gavin quickly settling into a rhythm of slowing the discs and sidestepping them.

 

They kept going until the supply of clay pigeons was exhausted, which took a while. Once Gavin realised Ryan was done throwing things at him, he relaxed out of his ready position.

 

"Sorry about hitting you with that first one," Ryan offered. "To be fair, I _did_ expect you to stop it. Still, you did remarkably for the rest of the session. Well done."

 

"Thanks," Gavin mumbled, gently rubbing at his stomach with a grimace. Now that the adrenaline of the training session was starting to fade, a deep ache was beginning to settle into the place where the first pigeon had hit him. Ryan frowned.

 

"I didn't get you too bad, did I? Here, let me have a look." Ryan stepped forward, concern on his face as he motioned for Gavin to lift his shirt.

 

Trying to hide the blush creeping across his cheeks, Gavin tugged up the hem of his shirt. Enough time had passed since they'd begun training for a bruise to develop, and Gavin winced at the mottled purple line slashing across his left hip. Ryan's frown deepened.

 

"I'm sorry," he said again. "I've never trained anyone right from scratch before, it was reckless of me to just throw you in the deep end like that. Good news is, once you get your Achievement Hunter suit, you'll barely even feel a hit like that." He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "Honestly, I should've got Jess to give you your suit before we started training. Ah, well, we can go do that now." He glanced down at Gavin's stomach, covered with his shirt once more, and noticed that the Brit was ever-so-slightly favouring his right side. "Maybe we'll swing by the infirmary first though, have Jack fix up that bruise for you."

 

"Well, hardly like I can sue you, I'm pretty sure I signed my life away with all that paperwork Geoff made me go through," Gavin joked, and Ryan smiled, relieved that there were no hard feelings.

 

"I meant it. You did well." He motioned for the door, flicking off the indicator light.

 

~* * *~

 

Jack gave Ryan a stern look from behind his fiery orange beard when they reached the infirmary, lecturing him on proper training protocols the entire time that he healed Gavin. After several minutes, he announced that he was done, ambling off to the other side of the room and returning to whatever he'd been working on before they entered. Gavin lifted his shirt to inspect Jack's handiwork, and sure enough, the bruise was almost entirely gone, just a thin line of faded violet and yellow remaining.

 

"Thanks, Jack, it looks like I got this weeks ago!" A thought struck him. "Hey, d'you reckon I could use my powers like this? If I get injured, just speed up the area I hurt myself in to make it heal quicker?"

 

"I wouldn't recommend it," Jack warned, swivelling back around in his chair. "Doing it that way would still physically age the affected area. Do it too often, and you'd end up with parts of your body being years older than the rest of you. Who knows how your body would handle that?"

 

Gavin's nose wrinkled. "Gross. Thanks for the heads up."

 

"C'mon," Ryan said, motioning his head towards the door. "We'll go see Jess about your suit now."

 

Ryan led him back to the elevators in the centre of the building, punching in the key to take them down to the third floor. Not for the first time, Gavin wished that there were clearer signposts indicating what was on each floor; without someone else to guide him, Gavin would have gotten lost within five minutes. True, he'd been given a map of the building that did a fair job, but he'd far from memorised it and would have felt like an idiot needing to carry it around.

 

The elevator dinged and let them off, Ryan leading the wall down the hall. Gavin scampered after him.

 

"So, does Jess, like, have powers to do with making stuff, or something?"

 

Ryan smiled. "No, she's good at what she does all on her own. Here we are." He opened one of the doors - labelled with nothing but a number, of course - and ushered Gavin inside, where a young woman, around Gavin's age, seemed so completely absorbed in her work that she didn't even hear them enter.

 

Bleach-blonde hair tied loosely at the nape of her neck and dark mascara emphasising her already thick lashes, the woman, who Gavin assumed was Jess, was bent over a swathe of fabric played out over a table in front of her. Sewing pins flashed on a pin cushion strapped to her wrist as she marked out patterns with a soft white pencil.

 

"Afternoon, Jess, how're you?"

 

Jess started slightly at the sound of Ryan's voice, then lit up the room with a smile.

 

"Ryan, hi! I'm great, how're you?" Without actually waiting for him to answer, she rounded on Gavin. "You're Gavin, Ryan's new sidekick, right? Oh my god, it's so awesome to meet you, it's been ages since anyone new joined the team!" Jess rushed forward around the table, grandly sweeping Gavin up into a hug. Bemused, Gavin returned the embrace. "I've got your first suit ready to go," she continued, barely a pause between speaking. "Of course, I'm making you more than one, it'd be kinda gross if you had to go out in the same suit a couple days in a row, plus it's good to have backups on hand if you do something to damage one of them. Though you'd have to try pretty hard to put a dent in one of these bad boys." She winked, then pulled out a garment bag with a flourish, proffering it to Gavin. "There's a change room just over there, why don't you go see how it fits?"

 

Still a little overwhelmed, Gavin accepted the bag with only a nod, stepping into the change room, which ended up being surprisingly spacious. A mirror covered the wall closest to the door, several clothes hooks affixed to the wall opposite. Gavin hung the bag up and zipped it, and couldn't help but grin at the suit inside.

 

Even just hanging there, it looked like it would fit him very well. The colour scheme was predominantly dark blue, with a bold stripe of dark red streaking down from each shoulder and joining in the centre of the suit's chest, like a capital V. A thinner band of white traced along the top of the red, and everything above that was black. The red stripe repeated itself on the arms and legs.

 

By now, Gavin had seen Ryan in his Exploit suit, and knew that the colours of his own suit were a perfect match. Eagerly, Gavin peeled off his regular clothes, dumping them in a haphazard pile on the floor and slipping into his new outfit.

 

The suit was a near-perfect fit, which, considering the only thing Jess had had to go on was presumably the measurements that he'd had taken as part of his induction into the Achievement Hunters and whatever photos had been provided to her, was pretty impressive. The material was thick, but not particularly heavy, leaving Gavin satisfied that he could move in the suit with ease, whilst still being afforded with some protection.

 

He tugged on the dark, sturdy boots and matching gauntlets - thinner on the palms and front of his fingers so that his dexterity wasn't impaired - and fitted the mask over his head. It tapered down to a point, covering his nose, the shape and colouring matching the stylised V of his suit.

 

Looking in the mirror, Gavin saw a superhero staring back at him. He grinned.

 

"You finished checking yourself out in there, Gavin?" he heard Ryan call from the next room.

 

"Yeah, come give us show," Jess laughed, and, blushing a little, Gavin opened the door and stepped out.

 

Jess let out a whistle. "I mean, I've just really outdone myself this time," she said, fanning herself with one hand. "Don't you think, Ryan?"

 

Ryan smiled at him. "You look great."

 

Gavin became very glad that the mask covered the majority of his cheeks, knowing that they were currently flaming red. "Thanks."

 

"You ready to go take it for a test drive, see how you're able to use your powers while wearing it?"

 

"What, now?"

 

Ryan shrugged. "Sure. No time like the present. You should be all rested up after seeing Jack, anyway."

 

"You're not just going to throw clay pigeons at me again, are you?"

 

The older man laughed. "No, I'm pretty sure we burned through the entire supply this morning. I talked with Lindsay earlier, she's offered to help train you. You're going to train with pretty much everyone here at some point - it's beneficial for both sides, so that we all have experience with as many different types of metahumans as possible."

 

Gavin's stomach gurgled audibly. "Can we have lunch first?" he asked, and Ryan chuckled.

 

"I guess we have been going at it pretty hard today, huh?" Jess snickered immaturely behind them, and Ryan rolled his eyes. "Alright, we'll head to the break room for lunch first."

 

Gavin stuck his hand out to Jess. "Lovely meeting you," he said, and she laughed at his formality, dragging him in for a hug.

 

"Great meeting you too, Gavin. Welcome to the team." She pulled back. "I'll get stuck into making the rest of your suits, I'll have them sent to your room once they're done." She turned to Ryan, grinning as she also swept him into a warm embrace. "Ryan, pleasure as always. Promise you won't be too hard on him."

 

"Only as much as I have to be," he assured. "You enjoy the rest of your day."

 

She glanced over her shoulder at her sewing accoutrements and smiled. "I plan to," she replied, without a trace of sarcasm.

 

~* * *~

 

Lunch was a simple but delicious, as Gavin found all of the meals at the Achievement Hunter headquarters had been so far. This was because Josh, a cheerful, burly bear of a man and the resident pyrokinetic, was actually a fantastic chef, and delighted in preparing meals for everyone. Gavin ate just enough to quell the vociferous rumblings of his stomach, not wanting to fill up too much knowing that he'd soon be back at training. Lindsay and Michael joined them as they ate, having already started their own meal, and they enjoyed their meal with companionable conversation. Other Achievement Hunters joined them as they filtered in for lunch, and soon the sound of animated discussion filled the room. Not for the first time, Gavin was struck by how easy it had been for him to strike up a camaraderie with the rest of the team; of course he'd had good friends before, but none of them had been metahumans like himself, at least not that he could tell.  Neither of his parents had been metahumans either, and hadn't believed that Gavin was either until he'd demonstrated his powers to them. There was something about being different from normal people that tended to cause a bit of a divide between him and the rest of the world.

 

Not here. With a small start, Gavin realised that for the first time, he truly felt at home.

 

"You alright there, bud?" Jeremy asked. "You just jumped about a mile."

 

"What? Yeah, I'm good," Gavin replied, not wanting to admit to how sentimental he'd been feeling. "It's just that I should probably get back to training, right Ryan?"

 

Jeremy snorted. "Boring. You're not going to turn him into a workaholic, are you, Ryan? It's his first day of training, you know you're allowed to go easy on him."

 

Ryan smiled. "Just a friendly match testing his powers, nothing too strenuous. You might call it fun, even. Lindsay's offered to help out."

 

"I'm running bets," Michael added. "Two to one she kicks his ass."

 

Lindsay beamed winningly at her boyfriend. "Aw, thanks, babe."

 

Jeremy's interest was clearly piqued. "You know what, I like those odds. You're on."

 

"Excellent." The two men shook hands over the table.

 

"Wait a minute," Gavin protested. "Don't I get a say in the fact that you're gambling on me?"

 

"Nope," Michael said cheerfully, collecting his plate and stacking it into the dishwasher.

 

Ryan clapped him on the shoulder. "C'mon, you'll do great. I've been training you, haven't I?"

 

"For _one_ morning!" Gavin squawked. "By throwing crockery at me!"

 

"Make that three to one!" Michael called out, already heading off towards the training room, the rest of the group filtering out after him. Gavin sighed as he stood, not particularly pleased that he was going to have an audience for whatever training he was going to participate in with Lindsay.

 

"You'll do fine," Ryan assured him. "I mean, I'll be honest, you almost definitely will lose. Lindsay's very adept at using her powers. But no one's going to think less of you for it." He smiled. "They _will_ think less of you if you're a sore loser about it, though."

 

"I'm filled with confidence," Gavin muttered as they entered the training room, Lindsay already waiting for him in the centre of the massive training ring, everyone else seated atop folding chairs lined up against one of the walls.

 

"Alright, here's the plan," Ryan announced, his voice echoing off the walls. "We're going to run this a bit like a one-sided game of capture the flag, only Gavin, you're the flag."

 

"Um," Gavin started, and Ryan dragged him to the centre of the arena, inside the bounds of a small ring about two metres across. Concentric rings spread out all the way to the edge of the arena in one-metre intervals.

 

"Now, Gavin'll stay here in the middle, Lindsay starts on the outmost ring. We'll have one minute on the clock. Lindsay, your aim is to get to Gavin and pin him; Gavin, your aim is to not let that happen. Lindsay can teleport towards you in one-ring intervals - and she can go anywhere along the circumference of the ring, so long as it's only one ring closer to you. If she skips ahead, she has to go back to the beginning. To try and stop her, you're going to have to use your powers to freeze her in place before she can teleport away again. If you catch her in one of your temporal fields, you can hold her for a maximum of five seconds before you have to let her go. Make sense to everyone?" Ryan asked, glancing between the two competitors.

 

Lindsay saluted him and strode towards the side of the area closest to the spectators, glancing over her shoulder to blow Michael a kiss. Gavin gave Ryan a nervous nod, crouching a little and holding his hands at the ready.

 

Ryan grinned as he stepped off the playing field. "Ready? Go!" he declared, throwing one hand out to the side to use his telekinesis to start the timer hanging on the far wall.

 

Lindsay advanced four spaces before Gavin even had a chance to react. Wild cheers erupted from the spectators as she quickly advanced, Gavin reeling and already beginning to panic.

 

"Relax, Gavin!" Ryan called from the sidelines. "Think of it like the clay discs this morning!"

 

Another three spaces.

 

Gavin whirled frantically, then finally caught sight of Lindsay just beginning to emerge from the vague grey mist that accompanied her powers. He flung his hand out in her direction, catching her square on with a blast of temporal energy before she had the chance to even fully re-enter reality. Even louder cheers sounded from the small crowd, Jeremy yelling encouragement to Gavin at the top of his lungs.

 

"Alright, five seconds, let her go," Ryan called out, and Gavin obediently loosened his grip on his powers, Lindsay disappearing instantly.

 

She only got two spaces closer this time before Gavin caught her again. More enthusiastic shouting echoed from the stands.

 

Gavin cracked a grin when he caught her again after only two more spaces. They were at almost half time now, and Lindsay was barely halfway to the centre of the ring. If Gavin kept up this pace, he might actually win.

 

That thought may have made him overeager. Lindsay advanced three places before Gavin could stop her, then four, then four again, obviously having found her rhythm and a sense of Gavin's reaction time. The jubilation of the crowd increased as she got closer and closer, their enthusiasm bouncing off the walls of the large room.

 

The timer wound down closer to the single digits, but Lindsay was only a few rings away from him now. Gavin twisted and turned frantically, but as close as Lindsay was getting now, he was just a little too slow each time to catch her. With eleven seconds still on the clock, Lindsay pounced on Gavin and dragged him into a headlock, grinning and giving Gavin a friendly hair-ruffling as the other assembled metahumans found an even greater volume to voice their enjoyment at, several of them standing from their chairs as they pumped their fists into the air. Michael was loudest of all, joyfully picking up his chair and tearing it apart over his head.

 

Lindsay let Gavin out of the headlock, laughing. "Michael, come on! You know Geoff's going to make you pay for that!"

 

"You did great, Linds!" he yelled cheerfully back at her, and she rolled her eyes, proffering a hand in Gavin's direction.

 

"Very impressive for your first go, Gavin," she said, having a moment of seriousness as she shook his hand before breaking out into another grin. "You ready for round two?"

 

Gavin was panting, despite the limited amount of physical activity he'd been doing. "Round two?"

 

"Of course! It's hardly effective training if we just do it the once, right?"

 

Gavin groaned a little, and Lindsay laughed again, vanishing from his side and reappearing at the perimeter of the arena.

 

They ran through the game once more; Gavin actually did better this time around, having gotten a better handle on the patterns of Lindsay's teleportation. It still wasn't enough to be able to beat her, but it was closer than it had been last time. The next round was even closer, and so was the one after that; on the fifth round, she reached him with just over three seconds to spare.

 

Then Gavin's strength began to wane.

 

He had never really used his powers for such an extended period of time, and it was showing. Lindsay would reach him quicker and quicker, and Ryan called it for the day when it became clear that Gavin was getting too drained to improve his performance.

 

Lindsay clapped Gavin on the shoulder. "Man, sure was frustrating getting caught in those temporal blasts of yours. Great job getting me so often."

 

He smiled tiredly. "Got pretty close to beating you a couple times there."

 

She laughed. "Hell yeah, you did. I can't wait to see what you can do once you've had a couple months to start properly training up your powers."

 

Gavin groaned at the thought as the others spilled into the ring, offering their congratulations to Lindsay and complimenting Gavin on the good effort he'd put in. Jeremy gave him a good-natured pat on the back, praising his abilities and seemingly unfazed that he'd lost some indeterminate amount of money to Michael. Michael, on the other hand, easily hoisted Lindsay up onto his shoulders, parading her around the room.

 

"You did well," Ryan murmured at Gavin's side, a proud smile on his face, and his mentor's simple praise made Gavin glow more than any amount of cheering crowds ever would.

 

~* * *~

 

Weeks turned into months, Gavin's control over his powers improving in leaps and bounds. Ryan began to train Gavin in hand-to-hand combat as well, for the times when his powers weren't enough on their own. He also learned to combine the two, alternately giving himself a boost of speed or slowing down his opponent. There was a written learning component too, Ryan and sometimes Geoff teaching Gavin everything they knew about rogue metahumans that their agency had come across.

 

Ryan would often leave on missions to deal with one of them. Every time, Gavin would eagerly wait for Ryan to tell him that he'd finally be able to accompany the older man in the field, and every time, he would have his hopes dashed, Ryan gently informing him that he wasn't quite yet ready.

 

Even though it was a gruelling process, Gavin found a deep satisfaction in how much better he was getting at utilising his abilities, not least of all because of how proud it made Ryan. The bond between only grew as time went on. Gavin fancied that there was some deeper emotion being hinted at whenever Ryan praised his performance, a certain level of intimacy when he gave Gavin an encouraging pat on the back, or wrestled the younger man to the ground in one of their hand-to-hand sparring matches. Gavin would barely even admit to himself that he didn't do as well as he could have in those matches because he enjoyed the feeling of Ryan overpowering him and pinning him down.

 

Whenever Ryan was away, Gavin would instead train with whoever was available. This often ended up being Lindsay, if only for the fact that their powers worked so well in opposition. They would usually fall back on the capture-the-flag-style match that they'd done in their first sparring session together. Gavin had gotten progressively better at it over the months, so they'd changed the rules to keep the playing field level, allowing Lindsay more time to reach him and shortening the amount of time he could temporally freeze her for.

 

It was after one such session, where they'd flopped exhaustedly onto the chairs against the back wall, Gavin in the middle of taking a deep swig from his water bottle, that Lindsay asked, "So, when're you gonna make a move on Ryan?"

 

Gavin choked on his drink. "What?" he said hoarsely, and Lindsay smirked.

 

"Gavin, I love you buddy, but you're about as subtle as a hammer. The only reason Ryan hasn't noticed you're into him yet is because he's completely dense when it comes to that sort of stuff. So, when are you gonna…" She wriggled her eyebrows at him. Gavin stared at her and she sighed. "C'mon, man, I've got fifty bucks riding on this, I've got until the end of next week or Michael wins."

 

"You guys're betting on my _love life_? Is anything you _don't_ gamble on?"

 

Lindsay rolled her eyes. "Well, it's not like we have a whole lot to do besides train when the city isn't under immediate threat of being levelled by a rogue metahuman. And we both know how little that happens. We've had, what, _two_ buildings get taken down since you joined?"

 

"That's still a lot, I've only been here a few months," Gavin pointed out, but Lindsay waved him off.

 

"Ah, c'mon, it's not like a regular crazy person couldn't've cooked up some homemade explosives in their basement and done the same thing. Besides, there's more important things. Like you and Ryan professing your undying love for each other."

 

"Well, I think that's a bit of a leap!" Gavin protested, his cheeks flaming. Lindsay cackled with delight.

 

"Look at your face, you're totally into him!" She grinned, grabbing him by the shoulders. "Seriously, you _have_ to tell him. Not because I'll get to rub it in Michael's face - although that would a _great_ bonus - but I can _guarantee_ he feels the same way. Stop pining after him like a puppy and actually ask the guy out."

 

"Isn't it… I dunno… frowned upon? Him being my mentor 'n' all."

 

Lindsay sighed, but gave him a fond smile. "Gav, I'm not going to lie. Geoff wouldn't be over the moon about it, because there is the chance that it might affect how the two of you work together. I mean, I know me and Michael are basically the worst-kept secret around here, but it's a little different for us - neither of us are each other's mentor, so we don't have to worry about our relationship being misconstrued as an abuse of power." She shrugged. "But still, no one's actually going to _stop_ the two of you if you want to be together. The Achievement Hunters aren't exactly being swamped with job applications," she continued, smiling wryly. "There aren't a whole lot of metahumans out there, and there's only a small subset of that that would want to use their abilities to work at a government agency." She shrugged again. "So, really, you wouldn't need to worry about your job here being in jeopardy, unless you colossally screw something up."

 

"Well that's reassuring," Gavin muttered. "Besides, not like I've been doing any actual work with him besides training, anyway."

 

"You'll get there eventually," she told him sympathetically. "Hell, it was _ages_ before they'd let me go out in the field. That's where all the really difficult, dangerous stuff happens, anyway. You'll end up missing the easy days."

 

"So you're telling me you don't get any satisfaction from taking down one of the bad guys?" Gavin asked, quirking an eyebrow.

 

Lindsay's lips quirked. "I mean, I guess some people are into that," she conceded.

 

"Ah, Gav! There you are, thought I might find you here."

 

"Ryan!" Gavin stood, happy to see his mentor, especially considering the older man had been gone for close to a week. Lindsay surreptitiously nudged him in the ribs as he got up, wiggling her eyebrows at him again.

 

"Hey, Lindsay, good to see you," Ryan greeted, and she mock-saluted him with a grin.

 

"Hey, Ryan. I'll go wash off, let you two catch up," she announced with a wink, leaving the training room and heading for the showers next door.

 

"How'd the mission go?" Gavin queried, and Ryan grimaced.

 

"Not great. That's what I wanted to talk to you about, actually." He sighed. "This mission's going to run a lot longer than we originally thought. Geoff reckons at least another week, probably more. I'm not here for long, either, I have to head back out in the morning. We won't really have any time for more training before that." He rubbed at the back of his neck, grimacing again. "I'm sorry to have to leave you in the lurch like this again, I realise that it's interfering with your training. And I know you have the rest of the team to help out, but I still feel like I'm letting you down."

 

"I'm going with you this time," Gavin told him impulsively, and Ryan blinked, a little startled. Normally, Gavin would accept it with minimal complaining when Ryan told him he wasn't going out in the field yet. He'd never asserted himself like this before.

 

"…Gavin, you're not ready to head out into the field with me yet. Especially not with the metahumans I'm dealing with on this mission. They're very dangerous people. You've come a long way, there's no denying that, but you're still not ready to face that sort of threat yet. When you do start to go on missions with me, it'll be something a lot more low-risk."

 

"I've been training for almost six months! How is that not enough yet?"

 

"I can assure you, it isn't." Ryan's blue eyes were deadly serious. "This isn't like in the movies, Gavin. These are very bad people I'm dealing with, and the reason I got assigned to this mission in the first place is because I have _years_ of experience in combatting other metahumans. One slip-up, and these people would kill you without even thinking about it." His tone was firm. "I mean it, Gavin. You're not going. Least of all on this one."

 

"What else do I have to do to prove to you that I'm ready for this?" Gavin cried, refusing to listen to reason. "Why can't you trust that I can do this?"

 

Ryan finally hit breaking point. _"Because I'm terrified that I'll lose you!"_ he yelled, then grabbed Gavin's face and dragged him in for a kiss.

 

It was short and inelegant, full of clashing teeth, borne of pent-up frustration and concern. Ryan pulled away before Gavin even had the chance to respond. Several seconds of silence followed, neither of them breaking eye contact.

 

"…I'm sorry," Ryan finally muttered, hands dropping, first to avert his gaze. "I shouldn't have done that. I'm supposed to be your mentor, it's an abuse of power, it's… it's not appropriate. It'd never work, anyway, it'd get in the way of our job."

 

Gavin was still stunned. "Ryan…"

 

The older man held up a firm hand. "No, Gavin. Don't try to make excuses for me. You don't have to pretend to be comfortable with my behaviour for my sake. I'll go." He moved towards the door, muttering "I'm sorry," once again as he left.

 

Gavin stared after him, absently touching his lips and wishing he'd had enough time to comprehend what was happening and kiss Ryan back.

 

Finally gathering his wits, he made a belated dash for the door. "Ryan, wait!" he called out, but the hallway was already empty before him. Gavin ground his teeth in frustration, wishing that his power wasn't so localised. He began to run down the hall, only to immediately collide with Lindsay as she came out of the adjacent room, freshly showered.

 

"Oh, Gavin, sorry, are you okay?" She flicked her damp hair out of her face, giving him a worried once-over.

 

"Sorry, I'm fine. Did… did you hear any of that?"

 

She looked at him blankly. "Any of what?"

 

"Never mind. Did you see where Ryan went?"

 

"Um, I saw him get in the elevator, it was headed up, I think. Maybe he went for the roof?"

 

"Thanks, Lindsay." He gave her an awkward pat on the shoulder and dashed for the lift.

 

"Wait, did you finally ask him out?" she called after him. "What did he say?"

 

Gavin ignored her, repeatedly tapping at the close door button.

 

"Michael, you owe me fifty bucks!" He heard her yell triumphantly as the door slid shut. He sighed into the ensuing silence, the only sound the soft whir of the elevator's ascent.

 

A soft chime sounded as he reached the roof, the DNA scanner equipped in every entrance and exit flashing a red beam at him before letting him out.

 

Caiti's rooftop garden was beautiful, as always, and completely quiet, not even a breeze to ruffle the leaves. Gavin frowned. "Ryan?" he called out experimentally, taking a few cautious steps forward and trying to ignore the trepidation coiling in his stomach. There were plenty of little alcoves up here that Ryan could have ensconced himself in, Gavin tried to reason. Gavin probably just couldn't see him, that was all.

 

And the fact that Ryan wasn't responding probably meant that he didn't want Gavin to find him.

 

Gavin's heart sank, but he squared his shoulders anyway, stepping further into the silent garden. They would have to talk about this at some point anyway. No point postponing the inevitable.

 

"Ryan?" he tried again.

 

Still no response.

 

The ground began to vibrate beneath his feet, and Gavin froze, trying to figure out what was happening.

 

The humming increased in intensity, the leaves of the trees nearby quivering with it, and Gavin bent his knees, preparing to leap off to the side.

 

"I'd stay very still if I were you," a female voice called from behind him, a Canadian lilt to her words. "You wouldn't want it to go off, now would you? It's very sensitive."

 

Gavin froze once more. "Bombshell," he muttered, and the woman laughed.

 

"Great, you've heard of me!" Yeah, no kidding, Gavin had heard of her. The woman had levelled entire city blocks with a wave of her hand. "Then you know how my powers work, right?" Her footsteps were near-silent as she walked across the soft ground towards him. Gavin started to sweat. Ryan was right. He wasn't ready for this. "Don't worry if you don't, I'll explain for you. I'm fragokinetic; I can create explosions with my mind." The voice got closer, and closer, then travelled past his left ear. Gavin's eyes twitched to the side, not daring to move anything else, and watched as Bombshell stepped into his peripheral. At first, all he could distinguish was blonde hair and a dark grey suit, then she moved a little more into clear view, allowing Gavin to see the blue and red piping tracing along her suit, almost like wires, and the wide, beaming grin underneath her dark half-mask, showing off perfect teeth. She gave him a little wave, seeming genuinely friendly, and Gavin just stared at her in horror. "You look a little confused," she pouted. "I can explain more if you like. See, an explosion is basically the rapid expansion of particles, molecules forcing each other out of the way as they get bigger and bigger." She stepped closer to him, and Gavin finally snapped into action, raising his hands in her direction.

 

"Don't get any closer," he snapped, his face set with determination.

 

Bombshell laughed. "Oh, Vav, you're funny. I almost feel sorry for you. Tell me, just how much can you slow down time? Do you think it'll be enough for you to be able to safely get away from one of my explosions?"

 

Gavin grit his teeth, the ground still humming beneath him. He didn't know. He didn't know if he'd be able to save himself.

 

"I've had years already to learn about my powers," Bombshell told him, almost sympathetically. Her friendliness was more terrifying than any hostility. "You've been at this a few months? Vav, sweetie," she simpered, "You don't have a chance."

 

"Stop taunting the poor thing, Bombshell," another female voice called. Gavin's heart sank; he recognised the newcomer as well. "Didn't anyone ever tell you not to play with your food?"

 

Bombshell rolled her eyes. "Like you're one to talk, Dollface."

 

Dollface delicately lifted one shoulder, purple hair cascading down her back. With her colourful locks, pristine white suit, and angelic smile, Dollface looked every bit the hero, but looks were deceiving, especially hers. Dollface was one of the world's most high-profile shapeshifters, able to almost flawlessly mimic the appearance of anyone she desired. Because of this, she was frustratingly difficult to pin down, evading the efforts of the Achievement Hunters and other authorities time and time again. Throughout her career as a villain, she'd taken on the guise of a whole host of different people, for reasons ranging from gaining access to high-security areas, to making important people seem like they'd done something compromising, to just plain humiliating people for fun. The last one seemed to most often be her motivation, apparently finding more joy in sowing chaos than in theft, only really seeming to steal things as a way to fund her escapades. It was no wonder that she and Bombshell regularly partnered up; together, they were a veritable force of destruction.

 

Gavin was so screwed.

 

"So, this is Exploit's new pet, huh?" Dollface's eyes flicked up and down. Gavin felt violated by her gaze.

 

"I'm not anyone's _pet_ ," he snapped, only for both women to laugh.

 

"Oh, the puppy has bite," Dollface teased. "Well, if Exploit doesn't want you, I'll _happily_ keep you for myself."

 

Gavin bristled. "What do you mean?" How had the two villains known he was going to be up here, anyway? It wasn't like he'd planned on going to the roof before his ill-fated conversation with Ryan.

 

Dollface grinned, and suddenly Ryan's voice was coming from her mouth. "It's not appropriate. It'd never work, anyway, it'd get in the way of our job."

 

The Brit's face drained of colour.

 

Her voice switched back to her own. "I mean, I'd like to say that I was there to hear it, because how _delicious_ , but it was our woman on the inside."

 

Gavin's confusion cleared. Lindsay had lied to him, led him to the unguarded rooftop garden while Caiti was somewhere else inside the building, blissfully unaware of the situation and unable to take advantage of the garden's defensive capabilities. Lindsay had betrayed them to the enemy.

 

_Michael's going to be devastated._

 

Dollface's lips curled up into a grin. "You've already figured out who it is, haven't you? You're smarter than you look. I like that." She raked her eyes over him approvingly, laughing when Gavin recoiled with revulsion.

 

"No? Maybe you'd prefer this?" Dollface's voice shifted into a lower register once more, body morphing, growing broader and taller until Ryan stood before him, fully decked out in his Exploit gear.

 

_Oh, god, no._

 

"Please don't do this," Gavin whispered through stiff lips. Not when he'd had a crush on his mentor pretty much since they'd met. Not when Ryan had finally admitted he felt the same, only to tell Gavin that nothing could even happen between them.

 

Dollface chuckled, and Gavin hated that she was such a good mimic that the sound still made a shiver travel down his spine.

 

"What's wrong, Vav? You can't tell me this doesn't appeal to you." She swept a hand down Ryan's body as she stepped closer, watching him from behind his mentor's face. Gavin probably wouldn't have moved even if Bombshell wasn't threatening to blow him to smithereens. Even though he knew it wasn't actually Ryan, Dollface's mimicry was so unerringly accurate, her expression so compelling, that Gavin couldn't tear his gaze away. She stepped closer still, until her lips touched his, soft and warm, moving slowly. It felt just like he'd imagined his first kiss with Ryan would actually feel, tentative and sweet.

 

Gavin had never felt more disgusted.

 

In a panic, he shoved her away, momentarily forgetting the nuclear threat beneath his feet. It wasn't like Bombshell could do anything with her partner standing so close to Gavin, anyway. Dollface pulled back, giving herself room to sweep her leg under Gavin's, grabbing his wrist as he fell. Flailing, Gavin tried to slow her down, but in his rattled state his powers did the exact opposite of what he wanted, giving her a sudden boost of speed, allowing her ample time to pull out a small coil of rope stashed in a zippered compartment of her suit, deftly tying his hands in front of him. She shoved him down, and he grunted as his knees hit the ground.

 

The ground stopped its ominous rumbling, Bombshell shaking out her hair. "Finally. And you accuse _me_ of toying with him."

 

Dollface raised an eyebrow. "Careful, Bombshell, that was almost snarky."

 

The blonde stuck out her tongue.

 

"Well? You calling Kitty Scarlet in? Or were you planning on us walking him there?"

 

Muttering some choice words under her breath, Bombshell pulled out a small grey brick phone, firing off a quick text. Within seconds, Lindsay appeared on the rooftop beside them.

 

Gavin didn't say anything to her. He couldn't say anything to her.

 

The betrayal in his eyes spoke volumes.

 

Dollface pouted at the awkward silence. "Aw, come on, aren't you guys friends?"

 

Lindsay closed her eyes briefly. "Look, are we going, or not? I don't want to stick around here too long, if you don't mind."

 

The purple-haired villain shrugged. "You're the one that's getting us where we're going," she replied, and Lindsay made an impatient gesture for the three of them to stand closer together. Bombshell and Dollface obediently pressed against Gavin's sides, Lindsay stepping forward to grab hold of his arm.

 

Reality shifted around them, their bodies transported from one place to the next within an instant. Gavin swayed a little, feeling nauseous, but recovered quickly, taking stock of his new surroundings.

 

Wherever they'd gone looked industrial, well past its glory days. Years of dust coated every surface, creating a soft haze that the weak incandescent lighting struggled to pierce. Gavin's heart sank. He knew just how extensive Lindsay's teleportation range was. They could be in any one of thousands of abandoned factories in America.

 

"Now, keep facing forward," Dollface ordered. "Kitty tells me that you can only focus your power when you're using your hands, so I don't want to see them pointed anywhere near me. Understood?"

 

Gavin grit his teeth. "Yes."

 

"Good. Start walking."

 

One of them prodded him in the back, making him stumble forward. With a scowl, he complied, getting another nudge whenever they reached an intersection. Eventually, they reached what had once been the factory floor, long-disused machinery silently rusting under a heavy shroud of dust. Gavin was steered towards a rickety-looking set of stairs that led up to a glass-walled office that overlooked the factory floor, no doubt once the domain of the management team of the factory. Metal creaked in protest under his every step, but still the women urged him upwards, walking him through the abandoned office and into the secondary office hidden behind it.

 

This room seemed far better tended to than the rest of the building; it clearly had a steady source of power, for one, as evidenced by the multitude of security camera feeds being displayed along one of the walls. Dollface steered him past the rows of empty desks, blocky, utilitarian affairs that were affixed to the floor, towards a desk at the back of the room, raised above all the rest. It had clearly belonged to some sort of overseer before the factory had been abandoned.

 

A long metal pole ran along the back of the desk, and Dollface give it a tap, making a hollow sound ring out. "Hands, here," she instructed, beaming hugely, and Gavin reluctantly complied. Fortunately, the desk was slanted, like an architect's, and the position wasn't too awkward. Gavin still baulked when Dollface produced another length of rope, deftly tying his bound wrists to the desk. Gavin jerked against the restraints instinctively, but both the knots and the desk remained firmly in place.

 

"Bombshell, why don't you go make sure that our guest doesn't arrive unexpectedly?"

 

"With pleasure." Grinning, Bombshell gave Dollface a mock salute, then left. Seconds later, she appeared on one of the camera feeds. She held one hand out before her, likely holding an explosion at the ready just in case she was attacked.

 

All sign of joviality fell from Dollface's expression as she rounded on Lindsay. "Kitty, I need to go get something. Can I trust you with him?"

 

Lindsay nodded, just as serious. "I've thrown my lot in with you. The Achievement Hunters would never forgive me for helping you, and I don't want them to."

 

"Good. Have a nice chat, you two." She left, leaving Gavin and Lindsay to their own devices.

 

Silence stretched between them for several long seconds, Gavin staring at Lindsay accusingly while she resolutely ignored him.

 

"Why, Lindsay?" he asked quietly.

 

She didn't look at him as she replied. "Because I'm tired of pretending like what the Achievement Hunters do is actually helping. Do you know how hard it is, pretending to be so happy all the time, like everything's fine, when you know it really isn't? Regular humans look at metahumans like freaks, like something to fear. All the Achievement Hunters really do is vilify other people like us for the sake of keeping ourselves safe from persecution. They're part of the problem."

 

"So joining Dollface and Bombshell is better?"

 

"At least they don't pretend to be the good guys," Lindsay muttered. She looked at him now. "Do you know what happens if a rogue metahuman does get caught by the authorities?"

 

Gavin was silent.

 

"If their powers could in any way help them escape prison, they're sedated for the rest of their lives." Her hands balled into fists. "They do the closest thing they can to killing you, because oh no, killing you would be _wrong_. But keeping you in a coma for the rest of your life is _justified_." Her eyes dropped away again, her voice soft. "My mother was a teleporter too, and a thief. She got caught, though, someone got in a lucky shot when she was stealing something and knocked her unconscious before she could escape. She's been in a medically-induced coma for seventeen years. I was eleven." Her eyes bored into Gavin's once more. "I'm not saying she's innocent. I know she's a criminal. But that doesn't give the government the right to take any chance of a life away from her."

 

"…I'm sorry about your mum, Lindsay," he said truthfully. "If you want to talk about justifying things, though, then why would you team up with Bombshell and Dollface, of all people? They're both responsible for so much pain and loss and death in this city. I know it's a cliché, but they're damn _evil_."

 

"Well, you know what they say. Beggars can't be choosers. Besides, what else can I do at this point? There's no coming back for me. It's either this, or become a vegetable at some secret government prison. I know which I'd prefer."

 

"You can come back from this," Gavin insisted. "Just free me, we can take down Dollface and Bombshell together. You can say you saw them take me, that you rescued me from them. You can still be the hero."

 

"That's assuming I want to be," she replied, shaking her head. "In any case, someone will figure out I've been feeding information to Bombshell and Dollface, it's only a matter of time. I don't want to go back to being a good little drone, and nothing you say can change that."

 

"What about Michael?" he asked softly, and Lindsay closed her eyes in pain. "He loves you."

 

"Gavin, please don't." Her words were quiet, but her tone brooked no argument. "That was by far the hardest part of my decision to do this. I will genuinely hate you if you try and use that against me."

 

"…Why not ask him to go with you?"

 

She looked momentarily startled by the question, like she'd expected him to give her another reason to change her mind, then she snorted. "You're kidding, right? I know you've only been with the Achievement Hunters a few months, but surely you know Michael well enough by now to know he'd never go for something like this."

 

"I think he might've," Gavin murmured. "He really does love you."

 

Lindsay swallowed hard. "…I know. But turning his back on everyone would've made him miserable."

 

"And you leaving him like this wouldn't?"

 

Her hands tightened into fists, knuckles white. "He'll get over it," she said tightly. "He's better off this way."

 

"How're you two doing in here?" Dollface called sweetly from the doorway, grinning in their direction.

 

"I'll go help Bombshell keep watch for Exploit," Lindsay announced, quickly marching from the room and slamming the door a little louder than strictly necessary. Meg watched her go, amused.

 

"I'm sure you'll be happy to hear your knight in shining armour will be here soon," Dollface told him, moving towards him. "I've let him know where we are, I bet he's rushing over here as fast as he can."

 

Gavin glared. "What do you want?"

 

"Why don't I demonstrate?"

 

Before Gavin could react, Dollface looped something over the top of his head, deftly tying it around his neck in a series of complicated knots.

 

"What're you-" Gavin's words were cut off in an awkward gurgle as Dollface tightened whatever she'd wrapped around his neck.

 

"Now," she murmured quietly, her voice terrifyingly soothing, "you're going to stop complaining and just listen, okay? When your dear friend Exploit gets here, I'm going to give this garrotte a nice tug, which is unfortunate for you, because I've knotted it in a way that once it's tightened, it can't be loosened again." Gavin yanked futilely at the ropes around his wrists, but of course he remained firmly tethered to the railing. Dollface chuckled. "Exploit will try his best to save you, I'm sure, but there won't be a whole lot he can do without killing you in the process. But he'll try, poor thing, and that'll give me plenty of time to get away."

 

"Why?" Gavin asked, hoping that if he kept her talking she'd give him enough time to formulate a plan. "You've got Kitty Scarlet on your side now, and your own powers besides. If you wanted to get away, you could've just gone. You can literally be whoever you want to be, no one would be able to track you."

 

"That's not the _point_ ," she hissed, tightening the garrotte fractionally. Gavin struggled not to move. "If I just _leave_ without doing anything, then he _wins_. Do you know how many of my plans Exploit as foiled over the years? It's _infuriating_. I just want to have my fun, but no, he has to swoop in every time and spoil things. I'm going to ruin _his_ life for a change." Her voice lowered. "I'm sure Kitty Scarlet told you what happens to metahumans like me when they go to jail, right? I'm not letting that happen."

 

A lightbulb went off in Gavin's head, and he surreptitiously started to twist his wrists inside the confines of his restraints. If he could just get his hands facing towards himself a little more… but he needed to keep Dollface talking, keep her distracted. "If you kill me, you know you're not going to go to jail, right? He'll kill you right back. Slowly."

 

Dollface laughed, unperturbed. "Like you said, though, no one would be able to track me. I'll happily keep myself below the radar for the rest of my life after this, knowing that Exploit would be out there somewhere, hating me with a burning passion but not being able to do anything about it." She noticed him shifting and simpered at him. "Oh, sweetheart, you're not getting out of those. I'm great at knots." She gave him a wink, which he resolutely ignored, going still once more. He'd gotten his hands in the position he wanted, anyway.

 

He didn't know if his plan would work. He'd never tried to use his powers like this before.

 

Anything was better than waiting around as bait.

 

Movement flickered on one of the security feeds. Gavin's eyes snapped towards it, momentarily distracted from his plan.

 

It was Ryan.

 

Dollface made an excited sound. "Ooh, he's here already! That was quicker than I expected!"

 

Ryan crept down one of the factory's labyrinthine hallways, sneaking up behind Bombshell as she patrolled the building. Gavin waited for Dollface to communicate with her in some way - surely they had some way to talk, otherwise what was the point of even doing a patrol - but she did nothing, watching the screen serenely as Ryan quickly disabled her comrade. The undetonated explosion that Bombshell had been holding onto went off about ten metres in from of her, but Ryan seemed largely unfazed.

 

"Well, that's unfortunate," Dollface said, calmly watching as Ryan carried the now-unconscious Bombshell over to a storage room, depositing her inside then using his telekinesis to tear free a nearby section of piping to bar the door with.

 

Gavin shuddered at her callousness. He'd known it already, but her complete lack of concern for someone who had purportedly been her friend for years made it clear she was a complete sociopath. Doing his best not to look at the bank of screens, Gavin focused on the ropes, concentrating on bending time around them, speeding it up. Faster, and faster, making minutes pass for each second of real time. Then hours, days, years. Faster than anything he'd ever done before.

 

It was hard to control. Gavin was much more adept at slowing things down; speeding something up like this, even something as small as the ropes around his wrists, was well beyond his experience. His control constantly felt like it was on the brink of slipping away from him, like any second it would spin catastrophically out of control. He had no other choice, though. He didn't have the physical strength to bust out of the ropes on his own.

 

Just when Gavin thought he couldn't possibly hold on any longer, he felt the ropes shift. He fought to keep his expression clear of triumph. His plan had worked - the rope was starting to rot, the fibres loosening as they decayed. On the screen, Ryan pounced on Lindsay from behind, knocking her out before she had the chance to teleport away. Gavin's elation subsided. He had to work faster. He couldn't still be at Dollface's mercy when Ryan found them.

 

The strain was incredible. He could feel his face going red, could feel a trickle of blood dripping out of his nose as a capillary in one of his nostrils burst. Just a little longer…

 

With a shout, he tore his arms outward, the ropes snapping. The pressure of Dollface's garrotte increased, the sharp wire drawing blood, and Gavin's tenuous hold on his power finally failed, sending a temporal shockwave rippling through the room. Dollface went flying backwards, the garrotte coiled uncomfortably but not restrictively around his neck, just as the door was literally torn from its hinges, Ryan's furiously desperate face appearing in the gaping hole.

 

Gavin's power spiralled further out of control. Dollface jerked and twitched, erratically ricocheting between being sped up and slowed down. The entire room shuddered and groaned. Already rotted, the plasterboards making up the office ceiling fell around them, kicking up clouds of dust and exposing the steel beams of the factory interior. The metal fixtures began to grow rust, weakening under their own weight.

 

"Gavin!" Ryan yelled, anxiously hovering at the perimeter of Gavin's fluctuating powers, not wanting to get caught in the maelstrom. "I'm here, calm down! You need to get a hold on your powers!"

 

The Brit gave him a frantic look. "I-I can't! I've never done anything like this, I don't know how to control it! I can't!"

 

"You can!" Ryan insisted, ducking a little as another of the metal pylons started to sag with a screech. He flung out his hand instinctively, using his own powers to help hold it in place. "Just remember what I've taught you! Just focus!"

 

Dollface continued to writhe, her face contorted with pain, her own powers rippling through her sporadically, her form shifting grotesquely in an attempt to stop the temporal energy from destroying her at a cellular level. Gavin watched her, horrified.

 

"Ryan, I can't!" Tears stung his eyes as he helplessly watched Dollface squirm. He might not have liked her by any stretch of the imagination, but he would never wish the pain she was clearly experiencing on anyone.

 

"Yes, you can. Gavin, look at me." Gavin's terrified eyes met Ryan's determined ones. "I love you," he said simply. "And I have faith that you can do this." Taking a deep breath, Ryan launched himself as far into the sphere of Gavin's out-of-control powers as he could.

 

 _"No!"_ Gavin shrieked as Ryan began to scream, the sound distorted as it alternately began to speed up and slow down. The older man was still holding Gavin's gaze - no fear, no doubt, only love and trust, and pain as Gavin's unrestrained powers began to tear him apart. Gavin began to sob. "Ryan, you bloody idiot! I can't stop this!"

 

Blood sprayed from Ryan's mouth and hung suspended in the air. Rips began to appear in his flesh, bits of skin sagging and decaying as decades passed in the space of seconds. Without his telekinesis to hold the ceiling in place, it began dip dangerously once more, a support beam tearing free and crashing to the floor, perilously close to Ryan's writhing form.

 

Gavin watched him in despair, feeling helpless. He couldn't do this. Ryan was going to literally be torn to shreds, or be impaled by falling debris, or both, and it was Gavin's fault. Another hot gush of blood shot from Ryan's mouth, his eyes slowly beginning to close.

 

 _No._ His inability to control his powers was what had made Gavin leave England. He wasn't going to let it cause any more grief.

 

Gavin gathered what little energy he had left, planting his feet. Ryan's body twitched, eyes no longer watching Gavin. No longer watching anything. Gavin screamed, crushing his eyes shut as he flung his hands out, doing his best to wrap his frayed control around the wild temporal energy coursing through the room.

 

Everything went still. No pulsing fluctuations of time, no horrific sounds of pain from the two people caught in its throes. Gavin opened his eyes in time to see Ryan and Dollface simultaneously slump to the ground.

 

Gavin rushed over to his companion's body, heedless of the blood flowing from his nostrils once more. "Ryan?" he whispered, not daring to speak loudly into the heavy silence. Ryan's flesh was still ruined, stretched and torn. "Ryan, please don't be-"

 

The older man coughed, eyes cracking open and mustering a smile. "Told you you could do it," he wheezed, more blood flecking his lips. His breath rattled in his shredded throat.

 

"Ryan, you damn bastard." Gavin choked on his tears, vision blurring. "Why'd you have to go and throw yourself into the room like that?"

 

"Knew you'd… never forgive yourself if… you killed her. Even if she's-" Ryan coughed again. More blood. "-one of the bad guys."

 

The tears stung a little harder. "But now you're going to die instead."

 

Ryan cracked a smile. "To be fair... I _did_ expect you to stop it."

 

Gavin let out a sob.

 

"She's getting away," Ryan murmured, head rolling to one side.

 

Gavin looked over to where Dollface had fallen. The villain had shifted back to her normal form, and, whilst bloodied and bruised, clearly had enough energy to stagger to her feet and drag herself out of the room as fast as she could, casting a terrified look back at Gavin before disappearing.

 

"Aren't you... going to get her?" Ryan asked. Gavin shushed him, smoothing his blood-matted hair.

 

"Doesn't matter."

 

"I meant it," Ryan whispered.

 

"What?"

 

Ryan smiled again. "I love you."

 

Gavin laughed helplessly, the tears finally falling. "I love you too," he said, voice cracking. "I'm so sorry."

 

"Not your fault. 'M the one who jumped."

 

"And I didn't save you in time," Gavin murmured back. Ryan's eyes began to drift closed once more. "Ryan?" He shook the older man. No response. Only the faint rise and fall of Ryan's chest even showed he was still alive. "No. No! Ryan!" Ryan's body rolled limply in his arms. _"Ryan!"_

 

 _No_. This couldn't be happening. He had to be able to fix this.

 

An idea sparked in his mind.

 

Surely _reversing_ time wasn't so different to what he could already do? It was essentially just slowing time to a standstill, then pushing past that barrier. It wasn't something he'd ever considered trying before, but he'd gained a lot of control over his powers these last few months. He only needed to reverse a few minutes, and Ryan would be fine.

 

Gavin closed his eyes, drawing together the tattered dregs of his power, focussing them around Ryan's body. He felt the temporal energies around him shift, and slow, then freeze altogether. Gavin dashed his remaining strength against the blockade. More blood flowed from his nose. A capillary in his eye burst, blood flooding into the sclera, mingling with his tears. He so desperately needed this to work.

 

Then, with a gasp, he was through. Ryan's body lifted up out of his arms, the blood splattered onto the floor rising back up into his body. His screams sounded even more horrific in reverse, but his skin repaired itself before Gavin's eyes. Or, more accurately, it returned to the state it had been in before he'd so recklessly flung himself into the vortex of Gavin's wildly rampaging powers.

 

Gavin felt his control start to slip once more, and he struggled to let the energy unwind harmlessly, knowing that he didn't have the strength left to reverse things again.

 

"Well, that has to be the single most disturbing sensation I've ever experienced," Ryan told him.

 

The younger man laughed. "I did it," he said happily, tiredly, then promptly passed out.

 

~* * *~

 

Even with Jack near-constantly by Gavin's bedside, using his powers to speed up the Brit's healing, Gavin was unconscious for three days after the ordeal. When he finally woke, it was to the sensation of numb legs. For a moment, he panicked, thinking that he'd somehow been paralysed from the waist down, but calmed when he realised it was because Ryan was draped protectively over his midsection, fast asleep.

 

"Hey," Gavin croaked tiredly. "Get off, you big lump, you're cutting off my circulation."

 

Ryan blinked owlishly at him, rubbing at one eye as he screwed up his face, clearly still half-asleep. It was adorable.

 

He blinked a few more times, brain taking a few seconds before allowing him to fully wake and comprehend the world around him. When he did, though, a relieved smile broke across his face and he flung himself forward, gathering the younger man into his arms. Gavin laughed, only for the sound to be smothered as Ryan pressed their lips together. It was only slightly more elegant than the first time they'd kissed, but Ryan didn't pull away this time, and after a few seconds the frantic desperation ceded, the kiss become something far more gentle. Ryan stroked Gavin's hair as he broke away.

 

"I thought I was going to lose you."

 

Gavin let out a soft chuckle. "Try it the other way around. _You're_ the crazy bastard who tossed himself into the middle of all that temporal energy when it was very clear that I had no bloody idea what I was doing."

 

Ryan kissed the tip of his nose, making Gavin scrunch it up. "What can I say? I trusted you could it." He tucked an errant strand of hair behind Gavin's ear. "How're you feeling?"

 

"Tired," Gavin told him truthfully, then grinned. "Hey, I reversed time," he said proudly.

 

Ryan smiled in response. "That you did. Patched me up real good. You'll put Jack out of a job." He gave Gavin's hand a squeeze. "He's been here for most of the time you've been out, by the way. He's off getting some rest himself now, but I'm sure he'll be glad to hear you've woken up."

 

"I'll have to thank him when I see him next," Gavin murmured with a yawn. His eyes drifted over to the bedside table, which was overflowing with a beautiful floral arrangement that wafted a calming scent towards him. Caiti's doing, he was sure. "Think it'll be a little while before I can pull off a stunt like that, though. Or use my powers at all, really, I feel bloody empty."

 

"I wouldn't be surprised if that's the case," Ryan agreed. "Powers are like muscles - if you put too much strain on them, then you need to give them a chance to rest before you can start training them back up again. And you pushed yourself way beyond what I could have ever expected. I had no idea you could do something like that."

 

Gavin cracked another yawn. "So much for having faith in me, then," he muttered, but he smiled as he said it. The expression dimmed almost as soon as it appeared. "Wait, what happened with Dollface and Bombshell? Where's Lindsay?"

 

"They got away," Ryan admitted. "Dollface must have found where I locked the other two up, because they were gone when I called the rest of the Achievement Hunters in after you passed out." He rubbed the back of his head. "Geoff's a little pissed about that, but it's not like I was going to just leave you lying on the floor somewhere while I chased them down."

 

Gavin didn't say anything. He didn't know whether he was glad or not that Lindsay had gotten away. Whilst obviously she needed to be brought to justice, Gavin was sure that Michael wouldn't be coping well with the knowledge that the love of his life had betrayed them. Perhaps that, if nothing else, made it a good thing that she hadn't been brought in yet; the abrasive strongman would need time to come to terms with her betrayal, or otherwise his anger would likely get the better of him the next time he saw her and make him do something he'd later regret.

 

"I should let you sleep," Ryan told him when Gavin yawned yet again. "You've still got some recovery to do."

 

The Brit grabbed at his wrist. "Stay?"

 

Ryan smiled. "I'm not going anywhere."

 

"Good." Gavin nodded, smiling back. "I need my partner by my side."

 

"Partner?" Ryan raised his eyebrow. "Giving yourself a promotion, are you?"

 

"Yep," Gavin confirmed happily. "I rescued myself before you showed up, didn't I? Hardly sidekick material."

 

"As I recall, when I showed up I still had to save you from _yourself_ ," Ryan pointed out, and Gavin swatted at him half-heartedly.

 

"Details." He yawned again, longer and wider this time.

 

Ryan grinned as the younger man's eyes began to drift shut. "Well then, this'll have to be a recommendation instead of an order. Get some sleep.

 

"Partner."

 


End file.
